Birthday Bash

With Cliffton and Violet's birthdays only about 3 weeks apart, we've decided to do a combined party for them (which we did once in New York) and it was a smash!  I had a dino theme for it which showed up in the cake - a Volcano cake complete with fire (candles), smoke (dry ice), and lava (colored ganache), dino-shaped sugar cookies and some dinosaur themed games like knock the spikes down on the Stegosaurus, and feed the T-Rex, each of which were amazingly and awesomely constructed and designed by my Richard!
We rented a bouncehouse for the first time!  It was a good deal and a great party tool!  I think it was $80 or so and since we couldn't turn it in Sunday, we played with it on Sunday too and are turning it in today (Monday).  We used Plan-It Rentals to get it.  My sister Jess, my friend Hannah, and Richard were some of the adults who helped out with the food and games and then my Mother in Law was so cool to help out by bringing some snacks and then doing dishes pretty much the whole time she was here.  It was such a blessing to NOT have to turn around and spend 100 minutes or so doing dishes after the party was over.  Bryana came over at the end and we had some fun shopping together that evening for ourselves and for Richard's birthday, April 27.  He's got an expansion for Talisman, a board game.
 
So, Violet is already 5 (April 17) and Cliffton will be 7 on May 10.  I love my cuties.  They had so much fun!  Cliffton did some magic tricks for his friends and it was great to see him more confident.  He had 3 schoolmates come, neighbors and cousins.  Violet had some neighbors, cousins and friends from church.  We had 17 kids or so in addition to our own.  :)  Crazy fun, let me tell you.  

The last couple of days

I don't understand why the pictures from Violet's birthday aren't showing up.  Grrr.  It was a pain trying to get them on the blog and yet it had seemed fine when I uploaded everything.  guess I'll have to play magician later and make them "magically" appear.  :/  I wanted to post that I accomplished one of my hikes/rides on my 2014 list - the Bonneville Shoreline trail.  It was so 'dumb' getting there, though, for lack of a better word.  I parked near Bridal Veil Falls and found a trail for the Great Western Trail, which was fine, but then a way up from it which was dumb.  It was sooo steep in areas, I could barely hike, let alone trail run (my goal).  Finally, I got to what was the old shoreline and then it was good.  Coming back I thought, Heck no am I going to do that same trail, so using my phone's google maps service, I found a way down to the Western trail and at first it was steep but then it was fine.  I nearly fell on the steep part and rolled my ankle and hurt a tendon (or something) near my left hip a little but nothing bad.  See what you get for trying to be all healthy, Janelle?  Yeah, boo!  :)
Looking forward to the kids party this Saturday.....anyone know how stressed out I get when I do a party?  Well, my super de duper awesome husband is doing a lot of it.  He's amazin', let me tell you.  It should be groovy!  I better go bake a cake, or something....

When you gotta go

Susie and I saw this silly episode of Bear in the Big Blue house years ago, maybe 15 years ago.  Susie found it recently and I had to post it.  For all of you parents out there, this should be at least slightly hilarious.  :)  Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKaobXtm6xo

What's it time for?

Violet's 5th Birthday was a great day for her.  She got to go shopping the day before her birthday for treats and such with the family and some friends.  Richard and I wrapped up presents that night and set up the table with decorations (Violet color, of course) and presents.  I had to work that morning but at least it was just half the day.  I took her and Cliffton to Chuck E Cheese in the afternoon.  

We had a family dinner that evening with some of Richard's family and my brother Dave.

She liked her "relight" candles.  :)  ha ha ha.  I think she did.  She wore a Birthday Girl shirt from her grandparents which was super cute and just happened to have 5 candles on the cake.  

We love our super UltraViolet!  She is so loving and energetic and brave.  She is one tough cookie!  Our first daughter, our Violet Ann Stacey.  

Discovery Park in P.G.

We went to Discovery Park in Pleasant Grove yesterday and had a blast.  It really is just as cool as people say it its.  It looks like a large wooden castle and has a lot of little scientific facts, diagrams, and other things in the playground.

The structure consists of a lot of rather narrow, twist, turny, stairs and platforms and bridges and has a dozen or so "towers."  You've got swings, slides, tables, restrooms, and ball fields around it too.  The smaller kids area is fenced so they can't run out except from one entrance and on a platform, however, its such a large structure that it is really hard to keep track of your kids so I ran around with Azure for awhile.  Good times!  Cliffton loved the space ship, Violet the swings and Azure the slides.

Thanksgiving and more

On Thanksgiving, we met with Richard's parents and his siblings, Megan, Kevin & Matt, with Matt's family,  Felicia, Eliza, and his Great Grandpa and my brother David.  I originally was either going to do my traditional key lime pie but I had just told my sweet Mother in law that we had some sweet potatoes and I wanted to do something with them.  And I did!  And I made a key lime pie.  And some Thanksgiving Oreo Turkeys (name card holders).  And some bread.  Yeah, it was about 130 when I went to bed.  :/  Crazy.  I then had to be up about 545 to get ready for work.  At least it was a shorter shift - usually I work about 630 to 1pm.  I've started  closing a bit too which is usually 1-7pm but as I've only closed by myself twice it took me awhile both times to get everything done. We had a relaxing day.  I am sooo very thankful to be around family and thankful we love each other and even though we screw up, we try to follow a Christ centered life.  Great blessings come to those who serve God and lead honest, virtuous lives which means repenting throughout our lives, to live with courage and faith in God.  What a great support our family is!  Both my own father and my father in law have great counsel and love for our little family.  They are kind.  I hope to be a kinder, more compassionate mother and, one day, grandmother.

I'm happy to be back in Midway and to be around family and friends again.  Richard bore his testimony today and spoke about ways we feel the spirit and how he was directed  to where we lived in NY and how vital it was during Hurricane Sandy.  I am so grateful for our Father who loves and guides us, as we listen for the Spirit.  I truly miss our friends there and yet I love being around my old friends here.  I am so grateful for the awesome friendships we've made with fellow brothers and sisters.  My heart was touched by them.  When our hearts are hurting, they so often wrap us up in the comfort of their love and compassion.

In my testimony today in Relief Society, I said how vital it was to have that love and kindness of my New York family as I felt depressed many times those first 18 months in Freeport.  We never really know how, "...in the quiet heart is hidden sorrow that the eye cant' see...." (LDS Hymn #220)  With our Savior though, we can follow him and  "....be my brothers keeper."  I'm so thankful for the love of Christ spread abroad through his disciples, no matter what religion they may be.  Or age.  Or ethnicity.  Some kids with whom I came to be good friends surprised me by their deep testimonies and desire to follow Christ.  Our Jewish neighbor and our Chinese neighbor showered love on my children that I've never really seen outside of immediate family.  It was beautiful!  I certainly have seen an immense desire to do whats right and follow God, no matter how hard or unpopular it may be, in my fellow members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  We don't follow man's ideas for success, though some are enlightened.  We try to follow the Holy Ghost, or the Spirit.  What gratitude we have for this messenger that guides us to correct and eternal principles, not just what will make us happy today.  Sometimes those correct paths lead us to act in ways that may not make sense.  But that path has peace, even if it takes time to understand to some degree why we were directed in such a manner.  Through our trials and miracles, we've come to learn that God is there, he knows us and empowers us as we put our hand in his.  :)

Halloween and more

So, its been over two months since my last post and I still have yet to finish some posts from about Memorial day onward.....hmmmmm....think I'll ever be able to do it?  Our pictures are crazy right now.  I'm not sure where they all are.  Hopefully they are not lost.  I am depressed thinking about that so nope, we'll think positive.  It will be a great scavenger hunt, one day.  :)

Richard and I are the Bear Den :Leaders and so we've had a couple of meetings in our home with these 9 year old cub scouts.  They are fun guys!  Recently we did a Bike Safety achievement and we went to the Sheriff's Department and had a tour.  The boys could not WAIT to get handcuffed and fingerprinted.  We all had a great time.  We saw the booking area, the room with the breath analyzer, the riot gear, a taser, the security by the courts, and met some other officers and staff.  We learned that the taser can shoot out 25 feet, that the most arrests are due to drug and alcohol related offenses, it hurts when the officer twists your arms to handcuff you behind your back,

Halloween was fun.  We didn't get down the canyon 'til later in the afternoon, after a lot of work getting Cliffton's WALL-E costume done.  Azure was a little witch and Violet was a princess.  We carved pumpkins the day or two before.  I posted pics of them on Facebook already but I'll try to post them here too.  We took the kiddos trick or treating but Azure had fallen asleep in the car on the way down and was SUPER DE DUPER grumpy pants so we only got to go to maybe two homes with her before Richard took her to Grandmas while Cliffton and I went together and soon met up with Violet who was with her Uncle Matt, Aunt Felicia and cousin Eliza.  It was Eliza Snow Stacey's first Halloween and she was a darling little Snow White!  There is a  home around the block from Grandma and Papa's that goes ALL out for Halloween.  It was INCREDIBLE!  I seriously want to do something similar one day.  I love Halloween spiders and bats and ghosts and tombstones and fog and Police Caution tape and skeletons and witches and candy.  They had that all and more and then some more.  Unfortunately the pictures didn't turn out very good but I'll see if I can get a fairly decent one up.  We had to go trick-or-treating there and the owner runs out with a chainsaw periodically which had me screaming in terror and delight!  Ah, good times!  :)  He was dressed like the Joker.  One of the coolest decorations we saw was a large brown spider with red glowing eyes that jumped at people via noise activation.  Can we say, mine??!!  We had a fun time and since Cliffton had no school the next day we were able to relax and enjoy it more.   

One of our miracles was that I got hired!  I'm now working in the bakery at the Zermatt Resort by our home.  Although its slated as a part time position, I've been working close to full time hours which has been a great blessing for our family.  With all of the challenges we've had in the last few months,  Richard and I have both prayed individually and as a family for guidance.  We've each fasted at times.
**I just realized I didnt' finish editing this post earlier. ** To continue - Richard and I had both fasted together to find employment on Sunday, Nov. 10.  I had found the job opening on the Friday before.  I was taking awhile getting my online application done and Richard said, why not go in and apply in person?  So I did.  By the next morning I had an interview with the Pastry Chef and then was officially hired the next day.  It was a miracle it happened so fast.  I think a large part of that was that we were united, in many ways, during our fast and then that I had found a job that I can literally walk to.
 Most of my shifts have been opening shifts, 630 to 12 or 1pm.   One nice benefit is free food - I can take soup, sandwiches, croissants, etc. home as long as they're not the last one.  Another great benefit is the Wellness Center.   I can use the gym for free (unless they're super busy) and in a winter wonderland like Midway, thats AWESOME!  I worked as a student baker for several months until just before I got pregnant with Cliffton back in 2006 and I enjoyed it.  I've wanted to work in a bakery again and I'm glad to have this chance.  Its been a little stressful of course to learn new responsibilities but I've enjoyed it overall and I have great co-workers.  :)   

My motto recently has become, "Expect Miracles."  We've seen miracles happen that were molded to help me know God is there and he understands ME.  I've realized how I need to focus on him and draw upon the wisdom and power he allows as I seek him.  These last three years have been very rough financially.  Rough in other ways too but especially with money.   One particular day I realized I had lost the $70 dollars for gas money we had been given by a family member.  It was horrible for me.  I searched and prayed and cried and looked and cried some more.  I started saying loudly, "Janelle, expect miracles, Janelle, expect miracles" over and over.  I told Richard about it and I looked in the car and then he took the car over to where I picked up Cliffton at the bus stop to see if it might have fallen there.  Needle in a haystack, right?  No $.  He talked to me and then said, "Janelle, I'm going to look in your jeans pocket and it going to be there."  And oh wow, it was!  Of course I had looked several times through my pockets.  :)  Prayers are answered.

So, unlike most of previous posts, this had no pictures and was more of a journal entry.  Totally worth it for me!  I will see about those pictures soon....